Park Mountain Ski Resort Served EVICTION Notice Yesterday…

Talisker owns the land Park City Mountain Resort (PCMR) operates on. They’ve been fighting in court over the rent for over 3 years now. PCMR only pays $155,000 per year on the current lease that has been more or less the exact same since 1971. Talisker wants more money, PCMR doesn’t want to pay it.

Yesterday, it all came to a head when Talisker served an eviction notice to PCMR.

“A firm under the Talisker Corporation umbrella on Wednesday served Park City Mountain Resort with a notice to leave the premises, giving the resort five days, until Monday, to move off most of the land where PCMR operates.

In two documents delivered to the PCMR side, an entity called Talisker Land Holdings, LLC outlines the move toward an eviction, calling PCMR a tenant and that the tenancy is being terminated.” – Park Record

Park City, UT

Park City ski resort has 5 days to leave the premises? This is going to get interesting.

The president and general manager of PCMR, Jenni Smith, claims that Vail Resorts is the reason for the eviction. Vail has just signed a deal with Talisker (they own The Canyons, too) to run the nearby Canyons ski resort for the next 50 years. Jenni claims that Vail is leading the lawsuit efforts against PCMR as a part of their agreement with Talisker to run The Canyons ski resort.

“Vail’s eviction notice is nothing more than a bald-faced attempt to circumvent the litigation already in process and interfere with our business. We will not give in to Vail’s bullying and intend to conduct business as usual for the 2013-14 season.” – Jenni Smith said in the statement

Park City, UT is nice.

Talisker Corporation is saying that PCMR didn’t extend it’s lease by the deadline and that PCMR backdated the lease to intentinally deceive Taliskier.

This is the outstanding reason that Talisker is evicting PCMR. The didn’t like that backdating of the lease.

Park City trail map

Here is some of the language in the two documents delivered to PCMR from Talisker yesterday:

“We have now discovered and forced you to admit that you intentionally backdated that letter. You now claim that the backdating of this document was a mistake for which you apologize. We do not view the intentional backdating of a formal notice you thought was critical to be merely a mistake and an apology delivered after over two years have gone by rings hollow. Backdating a document is a tactic solely used to deceive a business partner.” – Taliskier

image: theskichannel.com

The documents go on to say:

“Despite our dispute and us not receiving a fair rent from you, we have made every effort to be constructive and patient with this process, because we know how important this situation is to the community in which we both operate. Unfortunately this is no longer just a good faith disagreement, but a question of how you have chosen to do business. Your backdating of this notice and your apparent efforts to keep it hidden force us to take a different approach to our dispute and long-term relationship.” – Taliskier via document

Both of these documents were signed by Fiona Arnold, the manager of the firm Talisker Land Resolution, LLC. Fiona is also an executive at Vail Resorts as well as a Vail attorney.

Utah ski resort map showing Taliskier’s PCMR and Canyons side by side

One of the two documents delivered to PCMR is called a ‘Notice to Quit.’ Talisker claims that PCMR’s lease, which has been active since the 1971, expired on April 30th, 2011. The document says that the ski lifts and the like belong to Talisker. They say they’ll give PCMR 60 days to collect all personal property and equipment that is not attached to the land.

This same ‘Notice to Quit’ also states that if PCMR doesn’t comply, an unlawful detainer case may be brought against PCMR in court.

All this conflict is over 3,700 acres that PCMR operates on and the structures and ski lifts on it.

The old ways of Park City may be long gone soon…

Where does this leave skiers and riders? We don’t know just yet, but it isn’t pretty. When skiers and riders bought their 2013/14 season passes, they came with this statement:

“Park City Mountain Resort is confident it will operate business as usual for the 2013-14 season, its 50th anniversary. Talisker Land Holdings, its landlord, has stated publicly numerous times that it will not interfere with Park City Mountain Resort’s ability to operate. In the unlikely event the Resort is forced to close for the 2013-14 season, the Resort will refund the full season pass price paid by holders of 2013-2014 season passes. If the Resort is forced to close for a portion of the 2013-2014 season, the Resort will prorate the refund based on the period the Resort is closed.” – Park City Mountain Resort

Comment(s): 8

It is clear that in his situation the leaders of both parties have not the consideration of the employees of PCMR in mind. Off season is a stressful time in the sense that part-time and full-time seasonal employees need to know if they will have a job for the upcoming season. And this type of posturing only adds to it. So to all you PCMR employees were with you on this and best wishes.

What needs to be done is simple and efficient. Vail may think that they can bully PCMR but the last word comes from the skiing public who pay the bills. Advertisements need to be placed in the Park Record and Salt Lake Tribune encouraging all skiers and riders NOT to purchase season tickets from this point forward from Vail or the Canyons. These ads should also encourage wholesalers and property managers to encourage skiers NOT to buy tickets or use Vail facilities and ask employees (although this may be hard) to walk off the job at the Canyons and boycott anyone from working there until Vail gives in to Park City. It is PARK CITY that made this area….not Vail or the Canyons. Time the people get into this and give Vail a piece of our minds. Without the people in this area, Vail will not be able to function and we can cause them to lose money hand over fist until they give in.

Another reason not to go and spend $$ at any of the Vail Resorts family of money pits – and that is really too bad as they do own and operate some prime ski areas (Kirkwood in particular). The Vail corp is one of many things that are wrong w/ the ski resort business , They are the “Microsoft of the mountains” that bully or buy up the competition w/ no regard to the public.
After working for many years @ a web based ski and snowboard promotions company I have noticed that in the last few years it has been harder to find resort partners, as there are fewer independent resorts out there these days. The independents were always happy to work w/ us to get more people to the hill. Finding Ski Resorts willing to participate and offer discounts is harder and harder as more and more “independent” resorts are scooped up by Mega Resort companies (Vail and KSL come to mind). They are really not interested in continuing to offer the discounts and cross promotions we would partner with them on to offer in the past – the only losers are the Skiers and Riders and resort employee’s, the god damned stuffed suits that make these decisions feel NO repercussions of their actions , maybe if they did things would be different – and I leave you w/ my final thoughts on Vail – Vuck Fail !!